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NASCAR is not for the faint of heart. It is noisy, dirty and dangerous. So why would a "sweet little thing" like Janet Guthrie or Erin Crocker, want to be out in the middle of the pack, driving one of those fast and furious machines? Why would any woman want to drive for NASCAR?

Actually, women have always been involved in NASCAR. In the early days of racing, however, most women did nothing more than meet their husbands or boyfriends in Victory Lane, breathing a sigh of relief that they weren't suddenly without a lover and posing for pictures. They exchanged kisses and tried not to smear their lipstick and hoped that their tears of relief weren't making their mascara run. They were the cheerleaders and trophy girls of the race world. Though there was a smattering of women drivers, they were few and far between.

Looking back, we find that even during it's infancy NASCAR had those daring few women that just wanted to drive. One of the earliest was Ethel (Flock) Mobley. She was a sister to the Fabulous Flock Brothers - Bob, Fonty and Tim. It appears that the whole family was into fast cars, fast boats and planes. Of her seven brothers and sisters; three were into racing carts and running moonshine, her oldest brother Carl raced speedboats and her sister Reo was a stunt parachutist & wing-walker (as in airplane wings...) Coming from such a colorful background, racing cars probably seemed pretty tame. Ethel drove in more than 100 races. She competed against not only two other women, but all three of her brothers during NASCAR'S second ever event, in July of 1949 at the Daytona Beach Road Course. Though her brother Tim finished in second place, Ethel came in 11th, beating both of her older brothers. As a side note: this race was the only NASCAR race to ever feature a brother and sister racing against each other and also the only event where four siblings competed.

Other pioneering NASCAR females include Sara Chrisitan and Louise Smith. Sara actually beat Ethel onto the books as being NASCAR'S first female driver by about a month - she drove her first race in June of 1949 and both Ethel & Louise joined her on the Daytona Beach Road Course in July of that year. Three female drivers among a field of twenty-eight - even now that would be considered a rarity. Sara Christian raced in seven races during a two year period and had two top-10 finishes. She is credited with the only top-5 finish by a woman in NASCAR history and finished 13th in the final points standings.

Louise

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